LONDON ~ This year is likely to be the warmest on record around the world, climate change experts at Britain’s Met Office said on Thursday.

The global temperature is predicted to be 0.54 degrees Celsius above the 1961-1990 average of 14 degrees Celsius, the meteorological organization said in a statement.
It added that there was a 60-percent probability that 2007 would be as warm or even warmer than the current warmest year on record, 1998.

The potential for a record is linked to the presence of a moderate El Nino weather pattern in the Pacific Ocean, which is “expected to persist through the first few months of 2007,” the Met Office said.

“The lag between El Nino and the full global surface temperature response means that the warming effect of El Nino is extended and therefore has a greater influence on the global temperatures during the year,” the statement added.

Katie Hopkins, from Met Office Consulting, added: “This new information represents another warning that climate change is happening around the world.”

El Nino is an occasional seasonal warming of the central and eastern Pacific Ocean that upsets normal weather patterns from the western seaboard of Latin America to East Africa, and potentially has a global impact on climate.

It has been blamed for widespread bushfires and drought in Australia, heavy rain in East Africa and other severe weather conditions elsewhere in the world in recent months. (AFP)